Chapter 194: Ambush

The atmosphere suddenly turned intensely tense as Ulric stepped directly between Ethen and the towering figure of Duke Ao, planting his feet firmly into the fractured stone floor.

He positioned himself squarely in the immediate path between the young summoner and the Almighty God, his posture rigid and unyielding as if silently declaring that he would stake his very life here and now.

Funny enough, this sudden display of absolute defiance was immediately mirrored by several other high-ranking angels present in the grand assembly hall.

Bartholomew moved forward without a single moment of hesitation, his own divine aura flaring to life as he stood shoulder to shoulder with Ulric.

Ni’an followed closely behind, his expression completely hardened as she drew upon his vast reserves of energy to brace for the inevitable impact.

Even Eren, who had only recently broken through his own mortal limits to become an Angel, positioned himself fearlessly between Ethen and the furious, radiating presence of Duke Ao.

The sight alone made Ethen’s expression change slightly, a wave of complicated emotions washing over his mind as he stared at the backs of the powerful figures shielding him.

These people belonged to entirely different factions within the organization. They held different core beliefs, maintained different political loyalties, and had wildly different personal reasons for standing within the Bastion.

Yet at this specific, life-threatening moment, none of those deep-rooted political divisions seemed to matter in the slightest.

They were all standing together, forming a living wall of flesh and divine energy between him and the absolute wrath of a God Almighty.

[Hehe. There’s your answer. Now fuck off!!]

Mogar sneered, his booming voice dripping with absolute contempt for the dragon god’s blatant disrespect inside his own supreme domain.

A vicious, howling gust of concentrated wind suddenly erupted through the center of the hall, sweeping toward Duke Ao with enough raw, cataclysmic force to violently push his massive, heavily scaled body backward.

The ancient Duke was slowly, humiliatingly forced through the shattered stone doorway, his heavy claws leaving deep, burning trenches in the marble floor as he tried to resist the sovereign storm.

There was absolutely no way they would ever sacrifice one of their own promising young talents just to appease the fragile, bruised ego of an arrogant beast from the Demi human territories.

That was fundamentally not what this Bastion stood for, and it never would be.

The people gathered here might constantly fight among themselves, fiercely compete for rare cultivation resources, and ruthlessly scheme against opposing factions in the shadows, but there were certain absolute lines they would never cross.

Ethen had captured Ao Lorn while officially performing his assigned duties as a recognized, active member of the Bastion’s military forces.

If the Bastion allowed an invading God Almighty to simply execute one of its younger members on a whim just because his royal son had been captured in a legitimate operation, what would that say about the institution itself?

It would completely destroy their authority. Unfortunately, they couldn’t directly measure or predict the sheer depths of the pettiness possessed by a God Almighty hailing from the ancient Dragon Clan.

Just as Duke Ao was violently blown out of the shattered doorway and everyone in the hall collectively began to relax their tensed muscles, the ambient air suddenly exploded with a blinding, terrifying red light.

The entire grand hall was temporarily blinded by the sudden, localized supernova that completely washed out the natural light of the storm outside.

The retaliatory attack was simply too fast for mortal comprehension.

Too vicious, carrying the condensed, spiteful wrath of an entity that had lived for thousands of years.

Even Mogar, seated at the high helm of the Bastion, couldn’t react in time to completely neutralize the incoming destruction.

A significant portion of the condensed draconian attack slipped right through his atmospheric control, continuing straight into the crowded hall like a burning comet of pure annihilation.

"Fuck!"

Ulric’s divine reflexes kicked in immediately, his combat instincts taking over before his conscious mind could fully process the overwhelming danger barreling toward them.

He spun around and recklessly threw himself directly into the path of the attack, desperately attempting to intercept the burning red light before it could ever reach Ethen’s position.

Several other high-ranking angels reacted at almost the exact same fraction of a second, their auras erupting in a chaotic blend of colors as they summoned their strongest defensive barriers.

They absolutely couldn’t let Ethen be killed right in front of them for merely doing his assigned job.

Not only was he a brilliant, generational talent for the human race, but allowing a young member of the Bastion to be executed so easily in their own headquarters would permanently damage the morale of the entire younger generation.

If someone as skilled and resourceful as Ethen could be casually killed simply because a powerful enemy wanted petty revenge, then what reason would the younger generation ever have to believe the Bastion could actually protect them?

So all of these angels, completely disregarding their internal factions and personal safety, placed their immortal lives directly on the line to protect the Tier 5 summoner.

But try as they desperately might, pooling all of their defensive arts together into a single, massive barrier, it still wasn’t anywhere near enough.

The condensed power of an enraged God Almighty was simply too overwhelming for them to handle without full preparation.

The blazing red light tore through their combined, layered defenses as if they were made of nothing more than wet paper.

Their resilient bodies were violently thrown aside one after another, crashing into the stone pillars and walls as the relentless attack continued its forward trajectory unabated.

Ulric gritted his teeth, blood leaking from the corners of his mouth as his kinetic shields shattered into a million useless fragments of light.

The others desperately tried to withstand the residual shockwaves, their muscles tearing and bones fracturing under the immense, crushing pressure.

But the fundamental, evolutionary difference between their Angelic realm and the realm of a true God Almighty was simply too vast a chasm to cross.

The attack broke through the final line of defense with a deafening, metallic screech that shattered the remaining glass in the hall.

Finally, the condensed, burning red light flashed directly in front of Ethen’s widened eyes, illuminating his face in a mask of crimson death.

The overwhelming, suffocating strength contained within the approaching blast caused an immediate, heavy blanket of absolute despair to settle deeply into his mind.

There was absolutely nothing he could do to save himself in this frozen fraction of a second.

No martial technique he had learned.

No powerful beast he could summon from his spiritual realm.

No enchanted weapon or artifact stored within his spatial ring.

Nothing he possessed in his entire arsenal could even hope to stop a direct, killing attack from a God Almighty.

Had he really fought so hard and come all this way just to die instantly in the middle of a high-level political struggle he hadn’t even planned for?

"What a complete waste of a life..."

The grim, resigned thought flashed quickly through Ethen’s mind as the heat of the attack began to blister his skin.

But in that exact, fleeting instant, a young, perfectly chiseled, shirtless man appeared directly in front of him, stepping out of the spiritual void.

Adam.

His expression remained completely blank, completely devoid of the sheer, paralyzing terror that had gripped the rest of the hall.

There was no fear visible on his perfectly sculpted face.

No anger directed at the invading dragon god.

Not even a flicker of battle excitement.

He simply stood his ground, looking directly into the core of the incoming red light with an eerie, profound sense of ancient calmness.

"Ahh, it’s been a quite a while since I stood defiant against a god."

A faint, almost imperceptible smile slowly appeared on his stoic face as he raised his bare hands toward the fiery comet.

"Memories."

As the quiet words escaped his mouth, Adam firmly crushed a glowing, high-tier beast core hidden within his hand, reducing it to fine, sparkling dust.

The immense reserve of energy trapped inside it erupted immediately, flooding his spiritual conduits and reinforcing his physical form.

Then, the full, devastating brunt of the draconian attack landed directly against his exposed, shirtless body with a world-ending explosion.

For the first time in a very long time since Adam had awakened in this violent new world, his legendary, absolute defenses completely shattered under the pressure.

The searing red light tore viciously through his hardened flesh and bone, incinerating everything it touched in a fraction of a heartbeat.

A massive, gaping portion of his chest disappeared instantly, vaporized into nothingness as the sheer kinetic force of the attack pushed his heavy frame violently to the side.

But Adam had successfully accomplished exactly what he needed to do for his master.

His legendary Perfect Body had provided just enough absolute resistance to slightly deflect the lethal trajectory of the god’s attack.

Instead of continuing straight toward Ethen and erasing him from existence, the remaining, condensed force barreled wildly toward a distant, empty corner of the grand hall.

The reinforced stone walls shook violently, buckling and cracking under the displaced impact of the divine blast.

Thick clouds of pulverized dust and jagged fragments of scorched stone scattered chaotically through the air, completely obscuring the room.

[Your summon has been severely wounded.]

[Congratulations, you have stood before a God in defiance and kept your head high.]

Ethen clearly heard the system notifications ringing in his mind, the glowing blue text flashing urgently across his retinas.

But he couldn’t think straight, his ears ringing loudly from the deafening concussion of the blast that had nearly claimed his life.

His hand tightened instinctively around his own chest, his heart pounding a frantic rhythm against his ribs as he frantically looked around the devastated room.

The powerful people who had been standing protectively around him just moments ago were now violently scattered across the ruined hall like broken dolls.

Some were kneeling in the rubble, coughing up blood as they tried to force their shattered internal energies to circulate.

Others were struggling just to rise to their feet, their armor cracked and their divine auras flickering weakly in the dusty air.

Several of the strongest angels had been grievously injured while desperately trying to intercept the initial brunt of the attack.

And to his immediate left, Adam’s massive, fatal wound was already causing his physical body to lose its cohesion and slowly fade.

His entire chest had been brutally carved away, leaving a terrifying, glowing void where his vital organs should have been.

Slowly, his stoic body began leaving the material plane, breaking apart into streams of golden light as his heavily damaged consciousness forcibly returned toward the Spirit World to recuperate.

Ethen stared at him, his dark eyes wide and trembling with a mixture of shock and profound gratitude.

For a long moment, his mortal mind simply couldn’t fully process the sheer scale of what had just happened in front of him.

Adam had taken a direct, killing attack from a God Almighty explicitly for him, without a single moment of hesitation.

He had survived the impossible encounter.

Barely.

But against all established laws of this universe, he had survived.

As for everyone else in the vicinity, several high-ranking angels had also been deeply wounded by the residual shockwaves of that single, casual attack, each struggling mightily to regain their footing on the slick, bloody marble.

It was utter, unprecedented chaos inside the Bastion’s most secure location.

The grand main hall, which only moments ago had been the quiet, tense center of a high-level political negotiation between two Almighty Gods, had become a bloody, ruined battlefield in the blink of an eye.

And then, as the dust began to settle, it started.

[You are receiving the blessing of Divinity from the World’s Will.]

Ethen’s eyes widened in sudden shock as the new, golden text materialized directly in his field of vision.

A massive, uncontrollable surge of pure, blinding light suddenly broke through the physical confines of his mortal body.

The invisible force spread rapidly outward from deep within his soul, sending heavy, rhythmic waves of pure energy pulsating throughout the entire, ruined hall.

A mighty, ancient aura began radiating continuously from his body, glowing with an intensity that rivaled the high angels around him.

The spiritual pressure in the room continued to rapidly rise, pressing down on the scattered debris and causing the floating dust to freeze in mid-air.

His body trembled violently under the sheer influx of power, his muscles locking tight as his spiritual conduits expanded to accommodate the flood.

Something fundamental and permanent was changing inside of him.

The energy wasn’t simply entering his body and filling his existing reserves like a standard cultivation pill.

It was fundamentally rewriting something deep within his genetic code and his very soul.

His very existence seemed to be forcibly stepping beyond the strict, biological limits that had bound him as a mortal until now.

The golden aura surrounding Ethen grew stronger and stronger with every passing heartbeat, illuminating the dark corners of the hall.

Every single person remaining in the hall could distinctly feel the shift in the world’s hierarchy.

Every injured angel stopped their recovery efforts, their eyes widening in disbelief.

Every gaze in the room slowly turned toward him, watching as the young summoner transcended the bounds of humanity right before their eyes.

And then, the final, world-altering system notification appeared clearly before him.

[Congratulations.]

[You now stand above all men.]

[Revered Demi God.]